A Sense of Inevitability
by Muse's Inspiration
Summary: Dawn's life is turned inside out when she discovers that there is no fate but that which she helps make. Cross with T: SCC
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **A Sense of Inevitability  
**Author:** Muse's Inspiration  
**Rating:** Hard 'R' right now… could lead to higher! ;-)  
**Warning:** The usual Buffy & Terminator violence, gore, yadda yadda yadda  
**Spoilers:** Um, well… yeah… I mean, could we write fanfiction without spoiler of some sort being in it?? But… Pretty much everything in The Sarah Connor Chronicles is fair game and I'm actually not really incorporating that much from Buffy other than a character or two…  
**Disclaimer: **Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon, SCC belongs to FOX and…whoever writes it.  
**Author's Note:** Thanks to the ever lovely dharkcharlotte for the awesome beta work!

* * *

Dawn sighed as she taped up the last box. Looking over the dorm room where she had just spent the last five years of her life, she couldn't help but feel a touch of sadness. She hadn't needed to have a roommate. The council had shelled out the extra money required for a private room because that was the only way that Buffy would've ever agreed to her going off to college anywhere other than in Cleveland. Dawn smiled softly at the thought of the argument that had ensued when she announced that she'd been accepted to UC Berkeley and that she would be starting in the Fall semester. Willow had looked at her with such a sad, disappointed look, whispering that hadn't there been a plan for her to attend Stanford? And Buffy had looked like she was going to spit nails since there was no way that her baby sister was going to be on the other side of the country where she couldn't keep an eye on her! It wasn't going to happen. 

After much pleading, sulking, arguing and threats to run away and the employment of spells to keep her from being located; the gang eventually gave in and started making the preparations for Dawn to move to California and start school, all on her own. She'd had to make deals, sign agreements with the Council and double up on her self-defense training with Buffy and small arms training with Xander before she was allowed to go… but once August arrived, she couldn't get on that plane quickly enough. She was free! There was not going to be one more minute of being of The Slayer's Little Sister.

Life was going to be great!

It had been difficult at school… Berkeley was renowned as being a liberal college, but that didn't mean they didn't expect the most out of their students. The curriculum had been tough and fast paced and it probably didn't help that she had decided on a double major, as well. But luckily, Willow had done a lot of tutoring during the crisis of Sunnyhell and Dawn had been well ahead of her class. Plus, when Willow was home schooling, there was no slacking off. Dawn had often compared Willow to a drill sergeant in the academic world. Now, however, she was thankful that the witch had been so tough on her… it had well prepared her for the expectations of the professors at the university.

Graduation had been uneventful, for which she was profoundly grateful. Dawn didn't think she could handle any more drama than dealing with her friends and family as they had arrived for the graduation ceremony. Xander pestering her, Buffy being…well, Buffy, Willow interrogating her; it was enough to make a girl want to scream! Any more drama would have just been overkill, even for the Powers. She'd had to go through a great deal of explanation when it came to her choices in degree programs and at least Giles had understood why she had chosen her majors… Why was it so difficult for everyone to understand why a double major in Peace & Conflict Studies and Anthropology would be a logical degree to have with their lifestyles?

She had graduated in the top of her class and managed to garner the robes that stated she was gaining her degree with Highest Honors. It hadn't been easy, she had spent a lot of time studying rather than partying, but it had been worth it.

What she hadn't told anyone back in Cleveland was that she had also spent a great deal of time learning more about what it meant to be The Key and had learned that she had a lot of untapped potential in her abilities. Over the course of the past five years, she had learned there was a lot she could do that the others never even imagined. The handiest one was the ability to 'sense' truths about people through touch; being able to see what they had recently done, said and thought by touching skin. It had taken a while to really get that one under control and she still felt bad because she had actually accidentally passed a mid-term due that ability. After that had happened, she made sure not to come in contact with her professors until well after exams.

Now, here it was a week after graduation and she was packing up to move out of her dorm. She was going to miss the place… it had become home to her; but her friend Andy had said that she could stay with him until she found her own place. She had taken a position at the Council outpost in Los Angeles and was going to be able to continue, for the most part to live her own life. It was finally starting to come together for her and she was finding her own place in the world.

Her cell phone began ringing and she snagged it out of her purse and opened it, answering it while picking up her last box and preparing to take it down to her truck and load it into the trunk. However, she almost dropped it when she heard Andy's voice on the other end.

"What?!" Dawn yelped.

"My house… Dawn! My house burned down!" Andy's voice was trembling, whether from shock or anger or both, she couldn't tell. "Everything… everything is gone! The Turk, Dawn! All that work and it's gone!" He almost sounded like he was going to break down.

Dawn couldn't believe it. What had happened? "Andy… what happened? What caused it?"

"I don't know. The inspectors are here now, trying to find out what happened… but… Oh God! Dawn, everything!"

Now, Dawn really liked Andy. They had met when she had been looking for a cell phone about a year ago and he had sold her the Smart Phone she now had. They had just clicked as friends and gotten along from the beginning. Andy was a little older than her, but in some ways he seemed much younger. It was probably because he spent all of his time wrapped up in his computers and technology stuff… not that she didn't appreciate technology, after all… it cooked her food in less than three minutes and allowed her to surf the goodness of Dean Winchester screencaps when she was tired of studying. But Andy was almost freakishly attached to his machine that could play chess on its own.

Dawn had a feeling that nothing good was going to come of something like that… machines weren't supposed to think; they were supposed to do what humans told them to do! There were too many memories of the Buffybot to really make her comfortable with the whole thing.

Fighting to keep from getting impatient with Andy, Dawn consoled him as best she could and assured him that she had another place to stay in LA and then hung up the phone. Knowing that what she was about to do, Buffy would hit the roof if she ever found out. Good thing that both Dawn and her friends were pretty good at keeping secrets. Smiling, Dawn flipped through her Contacts list and found the number for her friend Chola. She knew she could stay with her and her cousin Carlos. Yeah, they weren't necessarily on the 'right' side of the law, but Chola was nice and Carlos had been nothing but respectful after Dawn had shown him that she wasn't going to take any of his Latino machismo chauvinism.

Yeah… things in LA were about to get extremely interesting.

* * *

Dawn had been staying at Chola's cousin's house for about three weeks and was just coming home from looking at a house to rent when she noticed the dark haired girl standing in front of the house, leaning against the car. Right away Dawn noticed that there was something 'off' about the girl… she was too still, too…intense. She parked her truck and got out, grabbing her purse and newspaper and locking the vehicle up. She loved her 4Runner. It was her baby and she'd had to beg long and hard for Buffy to dip into the Council's stores and pay for it. She wasn't going to take a chance on it getting stolen… although since everyone knew she was staying at Carlos's, it was highly unlikely anyone would even breathe on it. 

Walking towards the house, she could hear some raised voices coming from inside and noticed that Chola was standing outside as well, leaning on the other side of the car in the driveway. Nodding her head in greeting, Dawn eyed the unknown girl. Chola just shrugged at the silent question from Dawn and turned her attention to the front door as it slammed open and another dark haired woman came storming out. She stomped up to the unknown girl and ordered her to get into their vehicle and then they peeled away from the house. Still completely baffled, Dawn trailed Chola into the house and saw that Carlos was in an uproar and his men were all in a tizzy.

"Carlos, dude… what's going on?" Dawn had learned to stay out of Carlos's business, but something about the two women that had just left nagged at her.

"The dead return and are walking among us, it seems."

Dawn snorted. Yeah… like she didn't already know that.

Carlos looked at her for a moment and then remembered how Chola and she had met in the first place. "Yeah… you would know that, wouldn't you? Vampires and all… snackin' on my cousin. But this…? It's different."

"How? Cuz I gotta say, Carlos… I'm thinkin' that woman is bad news." Dawn wasn't comfortable… something was going down; something that she didn't think any of them needed to be involved in. She couldn't explain it; she just knew it was there.

"My uncle, he knew her. Said she was _loco_, you know? But she paid him well… so he handled whatever she asked him to do." He looked out the window, taking a swig of his beer. "She comes here, asking for papers. I want answers, not money. I want to know what turned my uncle into a _rata_, _denunciante_. She won't give me answers, then I'm going to make sure she pays me well enough to make me not care anymore."

"I'm not getting what you're saying, Carlos. How are the dead walking here?" Dawn was confused. She couldn't follow what he was saying.

"That bitch? She's dead. She died 8 years ago in an explosion in a bank. Her and her son."

Oh. OK, so that explained that walking dead part. But it didn't explain how she had just seen her walking outside.

"Um, Carlos… yeah, I'm appreciating all the angst and all, but… I mean, couldn't it have just been a cover up or something? I mean, people 'die' all the time! Look at all the insurance scams."

Carlos turned and looked her for a moment and then smirked. "No, scam _Amiga_. So, I'm going to do her papers. And then I'm done with her." He turned and walked into his office, settling in to do his job.

Dawn sighed. Not good. She hadn't heard anything in the conversation that settled her nerves any. Nothing good was going to come of this and there wasn't anything she could do about it. God! – She hated feeling helpless. Now she knew why her sister was on a permanent PMS trip.

* * *

The next few weeks passed in relative quiet. Or as quiet as things ever were for Chola's life. Dawn eventually was able to locate her own place to move into and started making plans for the transfer and buying furniture. Chola had already volunteered Carlos's crew to assist in the move, and while they had grumbled about it, Carlos had only to look at them and they quieted and agreed. Carlos was going to miss the little hellcat when she moved out… she had provided Chola with a sense of relative normalcy in her anything but calm life. He also knew that ever since Chola had been attacked and Dawn had saved her, Dawn was the only person Chola spoke with. He was worried how Dawn's moving out was going to affect her, but he couldn't force the brunette to stay with them. He could only hope that Chola would adjust. 

Shortly after she had settled into her new home, Dawn received an unexpected call on her cell phone late one evening. Just settling down for the night, latest case files on possible Slayer locality conflicts sitting on her bed, she frowned as the ring shattered the quiet of the night and throwing off her concentration. Reaching over and grabbing it out of her bag, she noticed Andy's number flashing on the screen and eagerly opened it.

"Andy?! Dude!! Where have you been? I've tried to get hold of you!" Dawn all but shrieked into the handset.

Andy winced and held the receiver away from his ear… one thing was certain; Dawn's teenaged propensity for shrieking hadn't disappeared in the last five years. "I'm fine. I've been busy… I found someone who was interested in getting the Turk back up and running; so I've been holed up in an internet café for the past few weeks, programming until my eyes crossed."

Dawn rolled her eyes… God, Andy and programming. He was such a nerd! "Andy… you could have called! I've been worried sick!"

"I'm sorry. But look, anyways… My partner and I are entering the new Turk in a competition over at the convention center tomorrow. I was wondering if I could get you to come, for luck?" He was nervous… he missed her, she was his best friend. He wanted to see her.

"Tomorrow? Uh..." she thought about it for a moment. "Well… what time is your competition? I have to work tomorrow."

"It won't start until the afternoon. Can you come?" He winced at the pleading tone in his voice.

Dawn smiled. Yeah, that was her Andy – ever the needy nerd. "Yeah, I'll be there, stud!" She laughed. "Should I wear something sexy? Or nerdy? If it's a competition with other nerds, maybe I should go sexy… give you an advantage!"

Andy chuckled. "I don't think that's going to help. It's going to be computer against computer, Dawn."

"Oh… well… never mind then! OK, I'll see you there tomorrow afternoon. I'll come by after work, all right?" She didn't really get into the whole 'tech nerd' stuff… that was always more Willow's cup of tea; but she was always up for supporting a friend.

Andy grinned. "Yeah! That'll work! I'll see you there, ok? Night, Dawn!"

"Night, Andy. Be safe, ok?"

After assuring her that he'd be fine, they hung up and Dawn gazed at the cell phone for a few moments, lost in thought. A small fissure of foreboding ran down her spine.

Why did she feel like she had just spoken to Andy for the last time?

TBC...


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** A Sense of Inevitability Chapter 2  
**Author:** Muse's Inspiration  
**Rating:** Hard 'R' right now… could lead to higher! ;-)  
**Warning:** The usual Buffy & Terminator violence, gore, yadda yadda yadda  
**Spoilers:** Um, well… yeah… I mean, could we write fanfiction without spoiler of some sort being in it?? But… Pretty much everything in The Sarah Connor Chronicles is fair game and I'm actually not really incorporating that much from Buffy other than a character or two…  
**Disclaimer: **Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon, SCC belongs to FOX and…whoever writes it.  
**Author's Note: **Degree descriptions are available at: **Peace & Conflict Studies** and **Anthropology**.

_OMG! I am such a horrible writer! I completely forgot to thank the ever so lovely __**dharkcharlotte **__for her amazing beta skills! Please forgive me, Oh Great Goddess of Grammar!_

* * *

It had been a long day. Dawn was convinced that while she had been given her job at the Council outpost simply because no one else was willing to be tortured beyond all endurance. If she had to listen to one more teenaged Slayer whining because 'Mandy' was horning in on her Slaying territory…

…Dawn was not going to be responsible for her actions.

Groaning she rubbed her eyes and then stood and stretched, loving the feel of tight muscles loosening up and the blood starting to flow again. She had to admit, the job at the outpost was boring and tedious… it paid well, but was incredibly mind numbing. And the long hours just sitting at a desk were not exactly what she had in mind when she had agreed to hire on with them after asking them for money for school. But, since they shelled out every penny she had asked for and then some, she was kind of stuck taking what they gave her for a while. She also knew that being the new kid on the block; she was going to get every crappy assignment that came their way. She had learned that lesson just from being the little sister for so many years.

Catching sight of the clock she smiled happily when she saw that it was time to pack up and head to the convention center to see Andy and his 'new and improved' Turk. She just didn't get the whole fascination with having technology do everything for you; Willow had gone insane when tutoring her because Dawn was adamant that she write everything down on paper, rather than putting it all on the computer. Dawn's point was that hard drives crash, but paper lives on. Willow had grumbled for days about how many trees she killed because Dawn 'didn't trust the 21st century'.

Dawn just ignored her and stated that one day; she'd prove she was right.

Packing up her bag, making sure her laptop was secured in her case, she grabbed her keys and purse and shut off her lights in her office and headed out to cheer on her nerd of the year buddy. If she had to be friends with someone who was a total candidate for appearing on Freaks and Geeks, at least she had chosen Andy. He was just such a sweetheart!

Driving to the convention center, Dawn couldn't help the feeling of antsyness that was 

coming over her. She tried to call Andy, but he wasn't answering his phone and that just caused the feeling to intensify. She had learned long ago, after years of living on the Hellmouth, to trust these feelings and so she sped up a little, anxious to get to the convention and see Andy. She needed to make sure he was, in fact, all right.

It took forever to find a parking space, because apparently, she was the only person in California who had a problem with modern science. It felt like the entire free world was at the center and she thought she was going to lose her mind trying to navigate through the parking lot. Finally, she spied a space in the back forty and quickly snagged it before anyone else could get it. Sighing as she looked at the substantial walk to the doors, she couldn't help but think to herself that Andy had better be glad she liked him, otherwise, she'd get right back in her truck and go home. Muttering to herself about the things she'd do for friends, she started across the lot to the doors. She quickly discovered that she had pretty much taken her life into her own hands as she dodged several drivers in cars that were more concerned about texting on their phones, and was quite seriously considering what it would take magic-wise to get revenge on the lady who was touching up eyeliner and driving when she almost ran over Dawn's foot.

…Dawn felt that it showed a great deal of maturity on her part that she didn't zap the woman and fry her hair for that one. Willow would have been so proud.

Reaching the center in relative safety and in one piece, Dawn paid the entrance fee and headed in, seeking out Andy. She decided that since she was there, she might as well check out some of the other exhibits that were on display and began walking amongst the displays. She couldn't believe the intricacy of some of the models that were being shown! The sheer amount of imagination alone that was required to come up with some of the ideas was almost staggering and she was starting to understand why Willow got so excited about tech expos. Hearing a noise beside her, Dawn looked and saw a small robotic dog approaching; wagging it's little metal tail in greeting. Grinning, Dawn squatted down and watched in delight as the dog came closer to her, acting almost like a live animal.

Suddenly, the little robotic dog started barking sharply and Dawn frowned, not expecting that. She stood up and looked around to see if anyone else was noticing the strange behavior of a computer driven creation and was startled to lock eyes upon the same dark haired girl that she had seen outside of Carlos's house a week prior. The girl was studying a robotic prototype of a person; tilting her head side to side as if in confusion at such a creation. Dawn frowned again, watching as the girl seemed, once again, to be… different. Dawn couldn't place her finger on it, but there was something off about the girl. As the prototype smiled and waved at the passersby, Dawn watched as the girl studied it, almost like she was analyzing its process. It was kind of disturbing how intensely she was observing it.

Dawn shook off the feeling of impending doom, convinced that she was just anxious due to having lived so long without averting any apocalypses. Maybe she was just jonesing for a good Hellmouth opening or something; kinda like how adrenaline junkies got if they didn't skydive enough. That could be why she was feeling so antsy and convinced that the world was on the verge of changing forever. After all... the girl across the way looked normal enough. But, that being said... didn't she herself look normal enough, when she was anything but normal?! She sighed and went off, continuing to look for Andy.

* * *

Asking around, she discovered that Andy was actually in an event that was starting in just a few minutes and went in search of the conference room that it was being held in. As she approached the door, she spied Andy and broke into a skipping run towards him, calling him.

"Andy!" she shrieked.

Andy jumped and quickly turned, face breaking into a huge grin when he saw that it was Dawn racing towards him. "Dawn! I was afraid you wouldn't make it!" and he wrapped his arms around the brunette as she leapt at him with her arms wide open. It always amused him how child-like her exuberance could be, yet her eyes showed that she had lived so much longer than her twenty-one years; an 'old soul' was how he would always describe her to people.

Dawn smiled at him happily, secretly breathing a sigh of relief over the fact that he was safe and alive. "So... how do you feel? You look good! You think you're gonna win today? Who are you going up against? Have you seen some of the stuff out there?! How do they come up with this stuff? Who have you been working with to get the Turk back up?"

Andy blinked at her rapid fire questions. He wasn't sure, but he thought she actually might have pulled all of that off without taking a single breath the entire time. "Um, look, I'm actually supposed to start here in just a few seconds and I'm meeting my partner before we bring out the Turk. Did you want to go on inside and grab a seat? Don't worry… I don't think this round will last very long."

Dawn smiled at him. "Sure! Wanna grab a bite after you're done… and you can 'nerd out' and tell me everything you've done?"

"Yeah, that'll work." Andy quickly gave her the directions back to the staging room and then turn and started down the hall towards the smaller conference rooms that had been allotted for staging the computers. As Dawn was about to head into the larger room where the contest was going to take place, Andy stopped and called her name. Turning, she looked at him with an eyebrow raised in silent question. "Dawn! Thanks for being here… I…Just… Thanks." Andy stuttered out.

Dawn smiled and nodded in acknowledgement and then headed on into the room, missing Andy meeting up with a dark-haired woman that would have been familiar to her.

* * *

An hour later, Dawn was about to fall asleep. She looked around the room and felt like she had stepped into an episode of The Twilight Zone. She had probably not felt more out of her element in her life; short as it was. These people were like some sort of Super Genius freaks that only Andrew would truly appreciate and every time a move and countermove made, it was like they were watching a football game.  


It was boring.

Stretching and giving a discreet yawn, Dawn looked around, trying desperately to stay awake. Glancing around, listening as the announcer voiced the Chinese team's next move, she noticed a set of double doors back near where the teams had entered from. Frowning, she watched as one of the doors opened and man came in, staying in the shadows. He was tall, dark hair, wearing jeans and what looked like a beat up old military jacket. He looked around for a moment and glanced over her way, locking eyes with Dawn. He gave her a quick nod in acknowledgment and then turned and exited back the way he came. Dawn watched as the door swung shut behind him, not really sure why she was so discomfited.

Suddenly hearing it announced that Andy's team had lost; Dawned whipped her head back to the front so quickly she felt her neck pop and winced at the lance of pain that streaked up her neck from the pinched nerve. Andy had lost? How did Super Geek lose?!

Rubbing her neck, she grabbed her bag and her purse and stood up, intent on going to the staging room and consoling him. Making her way down the aisle of chairs that had been set up, she glanced around and halted, staring at the woman that she had seen at Carlos's; she was speaking with the girl that had been there and there was a guy there as well, younger, with the same dark hair and eyes.

This was too much to be a coincidence.

Dawn's niggling sense of unease suddenly came back with a vengeance as she saw the woman turn and start off through the same double doors that Dawn herself had been headed towards. L.A. was a big town… too big for her to just keeping 'bumping' into these people. She had been here for almost five years and had only 'ran into' Angel and his crew maybe four times. Sensing that something was going to happen, and soon, Dawn started rushing down the aisle, not even noticing the woman who stopped at the end of the row.

Dawn soon found herself in a tangle of chairs, bags, legs and arms when she ploughed right into the woman and went down in a heap. Apologizing to the cursing woman, Dawn tried to help her up and gathered up her items that had been explosively dispensed everywhere in the chaos, all while desperately trying to keep an eye on what was going on at the doors… that were now closed, dammit! Feeling an unwelcome sense of panic and knowing from experience that she had better listen to what her instincts were trying to tell her, Dawn finally just gave up, grabbed her stuff and took off at run towards the doors, the ladies rude words following her barely registering in her panicked state.

Bursting through the doors, she raced down the hall, following the directions Andy had quickly given her before the competition had begun. Fighting an overwhelming need to hit something, anything, Dawn raced through the halls, skidded around the last corner and slid to a stop as she saw the dark haired woman from before back out of the room. She turned and saw Dawn standing there, staring and just shook her head and then sprinted away in the opposite direction, towards the rear exit that would take you to the service area of the convention center.

Dawn approached the room, feeling the niggling sense of impending disaster taking root in her chest and she had to work to control her 'fight or flight' instinct with both reins. She made her way to the door and out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that it was open. She'd had to face some horrible things in her life; Hell Goddess, friends dying, losing her mother, discovering that she wasn't who everyone thought she was…

…but none of that compared to having to turn and face that room and whatever was inside it.

Taking a deep breath, she took her fear in hand and turned and faced the room where Andy and his Turk were waiting for her, come what may.

* * *

She couldn't control the small cry that escaped when she turned and spied Andy laying there, a pool of blood seeping out and encircling him on the cheap carpeting. He looked nothing like he had just an hour prior, when he had been full of life and so nervous about his match. Now, he was just a shell; pale, bleeding out and no breath within.

Looking in the room quickly, she noticed that the Turk wasn't in there. It was gone. And his partner, whomever that may be, was not in there either. It didn't take a genius to know that this was a homicide scene and that her only witness was the woman who had just taken off down the hallway.

Dawn took off after her, running like the Hounds of Hell were at her heels. Time was of the essence, she had to find the woman that had been there. Even if she didn't do it, and that was open for debate, she would know who did.

Racing through the halls, Dawn found herself silently praying that she would be quick enough to reach the exit. She was only a minute or so behind the woman, but sometimes, that was all it took. Pounding down the corridors, Dawn didn't even spare a glance for the people who were meandering their way through the back areas of the convention center; she couldn't afford to be distracted.

Slamming out through the rear doors, Dawn raced into the night and paused, hearing the sounds of a fight off around the corner. She ran down the sidewalk and rounded the corner, sliding to a halt when she was confronted by the sight of the woman, kicking a man's ass from here to Kingdom Come.

…and couldn't stop the gasp when she recognized him as the man who had nodded at her during Andy's match.

She was just about to step in and start her own brand of interrogating, when red and blue lights suddenly started flashing in the night. Someone had undoubtedly called the police after discovering Andy's body. Taking a cue from the woman, Dawn stepped back into the shadows, but not before she noted the name of the police precinct that responded. Pulling her phone out, Dawn called the Council outpost.

Sometimes, it paid to have connections and she needed them. She was going to have a talk with the stranger that was being hauled off in cuffs.

TBC…


	3. Chapter 3

**Title**: A Sense of Inevitability  
**Author:** Muse's Inspiration  
**Disclaimer:** Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon, SCC belongs to FOX and…whoever writes it.  
**Author's Note:** beta'd by the wonderful **dharkcharlotte**, who, without her help, I would not get ANYTHING ever updated again!

* * *

Dawn double-checked her hair and makeup in the car mirror for what had to be the tenth time in the last twenty minutes. She looked down and nervously grabbed the large manila envelope that contained all the documents that corroborated her story and made sure that she had the ID badge she had been given by the Council. Probably the only good thing to come out of 9/11 happening, and even then, it was an iffy 'good thing', was that so many new departments and agencies had been created, no one could possibly know if the ICW was a legitimately government sanctioned agency or not. They had the connections to make them appear legit if someone got a wild hair up their butt and decided to take it upon themselves to research them as well. Money and power served their purpose sometimes, it seemed.

Checking herself one last time, Dawn grabbed her keys, purse, and files and got out of her truck. Locking it up, she turned and gazed at the main security gate of the Los Angeles county jail. The cement compound was surrounded by high chain link fencing and topped with razor wire. All along the perimeter, you could see the guards armed with rifles and shot guns and you could hear the occasional whine of a German shepherd from where the interior guards walked along the line with their dogs. It was cold and it was imposing; if it was meant to intimidate, it more than did its job. However, Dawn figured that if she could deal with all that her life had thrown at her, she could handle this. She owed Andy that much.

She walked up to the security gate and made her way through the line, watching as the guards checked everyone and their belongings. Finally, Dawn reached the gate herself and handed over her items to the guard on the left. The guard looked her over and grinned.

"State your name and the purpose of your visit." The guard that was sitting at the desk next to the gate grumbled.

"Dawn Summers, ICW." She handed over her badge. "I'm here concerning an ongoing investigation; you have a prisoner here that I need to speak with." Dawn made herself maintain eye contact with the guard, forcing herself to relax and not fidget.

Jones, the guard that was standing at the gate, looked over at her; young woman, brown hair swept up into a bun, greenish eyes, tailor made expensive pants suit… yeah, she was hot. He looked over at Chavez, who was checking out her credentials from his desk and grinned. Chavez missed it, however; he was too busy looking at her badge.

"ICW?" he asked, looking at the woman. "Never heard of it."

Dawn squared herself off, reached out and took the badge from the guard. "I'm not surprised…" she looked at his name tag, "…Chavez?" He nodded. "We're the new kids on the block. Homeland Security just mandated a need for us." She mentally cringed at the blatant lie.

Chavez was wavering, she could tell. "Prisoner's name?"

"He's the John Doe brought in last night from the Convention Center." Dawn smiled at the guard as she answered, gathering up all of her belongings and placing her badge back in her purse.

Jones looked over at her and then snapped his gaze to Chavez. "Him?! Damn! – what'd he do anyways?"

Dawn's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Why?"

Jones flushed under her scrutiny. "Well… it's just… you're the second agency that's shown up here looking for the guy."

"Second agency…? Who else has asked for him?" Dawn asked. Her mind was whirling with a thousand thoughts a second, the first being what if someone got to the guy before she did?!

Jones glanced around and then leaned closer to her. "The FBI is here, too." He leaned back and looked at the other guard. "What was his name, Chavez? Agent Ellison?" Chavez nodded. "Yeah, Ellison."

Dawn nodded in thanks, starting to feel some panic at the thought that this guy had the FBI on his tail.

"Don't forget!" Chavez spoke up. "There's that lawyer of his, too." He shrugged at Dawn, "Homeboy has her waiting for him… but you Feds get first crack at him."

Dawn's head was spinning. Possible murder, FBI, lawyers… what the hell was this guy involved in? It didn't matter though. She just wanted to know how he was involved with Andy and who killed him. She'd deal with the rest of it from there…

Gathering the last of her things, she nodded as the guards talked over each other to give her directions to the interrogation area where 'John Doe' was being held. Smiling, she headed off in the direction that she had been told to go. She had a feeling that whatever she had involved herself in, it was big!

* * *

"Agent Summers?" Dawn looked up and saw that a burly guard was standing at the barred door heading back to the prisoner holding area. She stood up and bent down to gather up her things, noticing another man had just left the holding area. He was tall, African American, with an air of authority about him. She immediately pegged him to be the mysterious FBI agent. It was soon confirmed when another guard came over and quickly walked past her with him, speaking lowly. All she could make out as they passed by her were the words "transport" and "Noon" and then a sharply snapped out "yes sir, Agent Ellison!" as they left the waiting area.

"Agent Summers?!" the guard said, obviously irritated. She made her way over to him and smiled brightly. No one could ever withstand a Summers' Smile and this guard proved to be no different and soon smiled back at her as he took her back to the interrogation room was. She nodded, not really paying attention as the guard cautioned her on maintaining distance, how the prisoner was not being overly responsive to anyone and that if she needed anything while she was in there, he'd be right outside the door and to just call for help. She didn't really care; she just wanted some answers… and she wasn't leaving until she had them to her satisfaction.

The guard opened the door to the interrogation room and she stepped in, smiling her thanks to him. She waited, head turned towards the door and ignoring the man that was handcuffed to the table, smile in place until she heard the door close and lock behind her. Then she turned towards 'John Doe', smile falling immediately as if it hadn't been there to begin with.

She stood in silence, studying the man for a long moment. He was built impressively, with broad shoulders and strong forearms. He was dark haired and blue eyed and if not for the slightly psychotic look in his eyes as he met her gaze dead on, he would have definitely not had a problem starring in some of her late night fantasies. There had been a flash of something in his gaze, but it disappeared too quickly to interpret. He was stoic, silent and intent and she had to fight not to fidget as he met her eyes, his gaze never wavering. She felt a small sense of victory when he dropped his gaze first and shifted in his seat.

Dawn walked over and pulled out the chair that was on the opposite side of the table and settled down into it. Looking at the man, she could tell she was going to be here for a while trying to get answers and figured that she may as well make herself comfortable; it was obvious that he wasn't going to try and make things easy for her. Smirking to herself, she decided that her best course of action would be to just wait him out. She had learned from Buffy and Faith that a steady stare did more sometimes than beating the holy hell out of someone.

Sitting down, she kept a steady gaze on the man and watched with an amusement that did not show on her face as he stared at the table. His hands were clasped in a deceptively loose hold and Dawn recognized the strength in them. They were the hands of a man who was well versed in physical labor. Xander hands. Certainly more than strong enough to grip a large caliber weapon and hold it steady enough to put a neat hole in Andy's forehead.

Several minutes passed and the stranger just sat there, fidgeting occasionally, taking care not to look at her. Dawn swallowed the derisive giggle that threatened to come out; if he thought he could out-wait her, he was in for a seriously rude awakening! She hadn't spent all that time with Buffy, Willow, Faith and Spike and not learned a few tricks of her own. She'd had to learn them to get what she wanted; in a house full of teenaged Slayers, complete silence always made more of an impression than yelling ever had.

Sitting back, she waited.

Finally, the man let out a low growl and leaned forward on his arms to glare at her. "What do you want, lady?!"

Dawn smirked. "All that waiting and that's the best you could do?"

He growled again.

"Channeling Wolverine or something?" Dawn needled.

"Look, lady… I don't know what it is you're here f-"

"-Who killed Andy?" Dawn interrupted.

"What?!" he asked, startled.

"Andy. I want to know who killed him and I think you have that information."

He sat back against his chair and stared at her. Dawn could tell he was debating his answers, evaluating her and trying to figure out how much bullshit he could feed her that she'd believe. Unfortunately for him, she wasn't in the mood for much in the way of less than honest answers.

"I'll advise you to be honest with me and just go ahead and tell me what I need to know." She cautioned him. "Otherwise, I'll employ other methods to get what I want… and you can be assured, you're not going to like them."

He looked at her, took in her slender frame and smart suit, and snorted. "Yeah. I'm terrified."

"Did you kill him?" Dawn smiled inwardly at her successful use of 'Ripper voice' when the man's eyes widened significantly.

"What?! No!" His head shook emphatically and his palms flashed up briefly in denial.

Dawn tilted her head and gave him an obvious once over. "Huh. You know, you look like you've been trained… military? What is it that they say… 'Two in the chest, one in the head, you know they're dead'? Isn't that the credo?" Dawn was reaching the point of having had enough. She wanted the answers and she wanted them now.

"I don't know what you're talking about !" he stated again, shaking his head.

"Last warning." She sat a little straighter in her seat and began pulling off the gloves that she had kept on during the interview. "You can tell me what I want to know, or I can find out _my way_." She looked at him for a moment and saw that he was watching her removing the clothing with a look of dreaded fascination on his face. "Which is it going to be, felony-boy?"

He shook himself out of his trance and looked at her. "I told you, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Fine."

Dawn lunged across the table, quicker than anyone could have expected. All the years of training and fighting against the supernatural forces had provided her with lightening quick reflexes. Before he even had a chance to register what was happening, Dawn had him by the wrist with one hand and the other she clapped, open-palmed, to the side of his face and then released the restraints on an ability that she had sworn to never deliberately use against anyone.

Feeling the power opening up within her mind, she allowed it to flow through her and out her palm and into the man who was so stunned, he hadn't even begun to process the situation enough to start struggling. She could now sense his confusion through her contact with him and his… relief? – that she was human… in a manner of speaking. Frowning in confusion, Dawn shook her head and started looking for the information she needed, flipping through memories and thoughts much like a set of flashcards, pausing on some to get a better look and then discarding them just as quickly once she realized that it didn't contain what she needed.

Rifling through, she soon found what she sought. Looking through it thoroughly, studying all the details carefully, she nodded her head and started to release her hold on him. As she did so, she caught sight of something and felt herself grow faint as she realized what she was looking at. Startled, she released him and shoved him away from her, panting from both fear and exertion.

He sat back, shaking and pale. "What the _fuck_ was that?!" the man yelled at her, shocked and lightheaded.

"I… I'm sorry. I had to know." Dawn shook her head, trying to get her thoughts in order. "I… Derek? Is your name Derek?" she looked at him for confirmation and looked down at the tabletop when he nodded. "I'm sorry, Derek. I had to know if you killed him or not."

He continued to stare at her in confusion and not a little fear. His head was pounding now and he felt like the room was spinning. It had been a long time since he had felt helpless, and even then, he hadn't felt _that _helpless; complete loss of control over his own will… He didn't like it. It had made him feel vulnerable. He responded in the only way that he knew how.

He got pissed.

"Get the fuck out."

Dawn frowned sadly. "I'm sorry, Derek! I had to know."

"I already told you, I didn't know what you were talking about. Get the _fuck_ out of here, _now_!" Derek was getting more and more pissed off the longer she stayed in her seat.

"People lie, Derek. I needed to know the truth." Dawn said quietly.

"I don't know who, or even what, you are, lady. But you need to get the fuck out of here, now." Derek was panting he was in such a high rage.

Dawn nodded and started to stand up, pausing before she turned towards the door to stare at him for a long moment. Sighing, she walked to the door and stopped, debating with herself about her next move and then sighed and while facing the door, she quietly asked the question she knew she was not going to like the answer to.

"What did it mean, Derek? 'No fate'? What does that mean?"

She turned towards him, waiting for an answer. He gazed at her for long seconds, watching her study him. Finally, he shrugged and looked away, staring at the gray wall in silence. Taking a deep breath, he said, in a voice so low that she had to take a step towards him to be able to hear, "It means we're all going to die."

She nodded and knocked on the door, looking back at Derek one last time before she exited the room after the guard let her out the door. He hadn't moved; he was still staring in silence at the gray wall.


	4. Chapter 4

**Title:** A Sense of Inevitability Chapter 4  
**Author: **Muse's Inspiration  
**Rating:** Hard 'R' right now… could lead to higher! ;-)  
**Warning:** The usual Buffy & Terminator violence, gore, yadda yadda yadda  
**Disclaimer:** Please see in previous chapter(s).  
**Author's Note:** There are a few spots where I took dialogue directly from the episode 'Dungeons and Dragons' as it pertained to the scene. Again, everyone needs to give DharkCharlotte some love, because if it wasn't for her endless patience with me as I toss ideas around for a chapter, nothing would ever get done!

* * *

Dawn rushed out to her car, barely taking the time to acknowledge the gate guards as she passed them. She was on a mission and she couldn't allow anyone to interfere; there was too much to do and only a few hours to accomplish it. Flinging open her truck door, she threw her purse and the various other items she was carrying across the cab and frantically dialed the Council outpost as she climbed in. Holding the phone between her shoulder and ear, she fumbled with her keys and cursed when they became hopelessly ensnarled within each other. Realizing that panicking was not going to help anything, she took a second to collect herself. Breathing deeply for a second calmed things down enough that she was able to start the whole process over again. Since she stopped fighting with her keys, they fell apart and she was able to jam the ignition key in and start the truck up.

Okay, so she was only marginally less frantic.

Frowning at the sound of continuous ringing on the other end of the phone, Dawn hung up and started dialing all of the private cell phone numbers she had saved into her phone when she first started working for the ICW. Everyone had stated that she wouldn't need them, but now it was quite obvious that she did! Sifting through her contact numbers, she finally found the one she wanted and hit 'Send', dialing the head watcher for her outpost. She wondered how she would explain how she came into the information that she was passing on, but figured that if she just played 'Vague Girl' like her sister taught her, she could probably just bypass that part of the ordeal. Of course, it was just her luck that no one answered there, either!

Growling in frustration and driving at breakneck speeds to get to the other side of Los Angeles in time to make the plans that were needed, Dawn gave in and called the only person she knew would answer the phone no matter what the situation was: Rupert Giles.

* * *

When Dawn saw who Giles had sent as her 'backup' she really didn't know if she should sit down and cry... or laugh at the comic irony of the choice that was made. It wasn't that she hadn't known he was up there in Seattle, as a... whatever he was there as. It was more that she was rather surprised that Giles would intervene and send him here to begin with.

That was the part she was having a hard time wrapping her head around.

However, there was an upside... he'd brought Siobhan and Ashanti with him. They were the only Council trained Potentials that survived outside the Sunnydale gathering. Their Watchers had somehow managed to escape the Bringers and hid them away until after everything had died down. Because of this, they were among the most experienced of Slayers. Luckily, the group as a whole now had plenty of backup and the veteran Slayers could make the rounds when needed.

In the meantime... Dawn could only sigh and shake her head. She couldn't help but smile as her 'backup' started talking at the speed of light, about all different manners of extracting their quarry from the armored transport vehicles, what they would need to bring with them to accomplish their mission, where they would need to do the snatch and get... and the files! - Good Lord, where he got his information from, she was fairly certain she didn't want to know. But that was how he had always been... Mr. Information.

Andrew Wells was a pain in the ass; a nerd to the nth degree. But he was her nerd and damn it! - She sure had missed him. He might not have been her first choice for backup, but she also knew that this extraction was something that had to happen fast and his Council outpost was the closest. It was also apparent that Andrew's was the only outpost that could spare people. She really didn't have time to quibble over why he was sent; she had to get Derek off of that prisoner transport today!

This led to the next problem… Siobhan and Ashanti, being the good little Council trained Potentials they'd been taught to be, had never been good at following other people's orders aside from their Watchers and Dawn desperately needed this to go off without a hitch. Mr. JD was her only source of information regarding Andy Goode, what the future held and what she could do to help prevent what she'd seen in his mind. If something happened to him, she didn't know what she would do.

Ashanti and Siobhan's constant arguing brought an instant frown to her face. It was ridiculous to argue over who was going to drive and who would extract the guy from the truck. Considering their situation, it was actually a little funny listening to them bicker, since they had to keep stopping in the middle of the heated discussion constantly and demand the other to repeat themselves over and over again as they couldn't understand each other's accents. Siobhan was from Ireland and had the thickest Gaelic accent you could find and Ashanti was from Kenya and had a lyrical accent that was about as close to a foreign language while still being English as Siobhan had ever heard.

Sighing, Dawn turned back to Andrew and shook her head with a mixture of frustration and disgust, he merely shrugged and winced. He lived with them full time. For a long moment she debated with herself, silently regarding what she should say to him before finally deciding to just spit it out and have it done with.

"You know… for two Slayers whose destinies are to fight the forces of evil… I can't see how they get anything done with the constant bickering."

Andrew swallowed hard, almost choking on a mouthful of soft drink. At least he'd avoided spewing, which was probably in his best interest, given the situation. Dawn just shook her head and walked off, calling over her shoulder as she did. "Flip a freaking coin to decide who drives, damn it. Andrew! You need to get everyone rounded up and in the transport! We're running out of time."

* * *

Dawn came to awareness in stages, swimming through the levels of consciousness in varying degrees. Her first awareness was of muted shouting; as if she was underwater with cotton stuffed into her ears. Straining to understand, she slowly became aware of pain racing through her body, followed by a tell-tale stiffness that indicated extreme muscle usage or injury. She knew something wasn't right, but she couldn't quite place what it was. Frowning in her semi-conscious state, the presence of light started making itself known in the form of blinding pain when she attempted to open her eyes, causing her to slam her eyes shut again and groaning; whatever had happened, it wasn't good. She hadn't felt like this even when she had been kidnapped.

Rolling ever so slowly onto her side, Dawn concentrated on keeping back the bile that threatened to force its way out when the movement, even as slight as it was, caused a wave of nausea to swamp over her. Her head spun wildly, her mouth watering threateningly once again and she took slow, deep breaths, relieved when the feeling of nausea retreated enough that she was willing to try again. She opened eyes, but even squinting caused lances of pain to shoot through her head and she couldn't contain the groan that slipped out. Dawn knew she couldn't stay in this state, however. It was dangerous to be this helpless; she was too vulnerable like this. Gritting her teeth, she rolled over some more and got to her hands and knees, slowly pushing herself up, she forced her eyes open, taking in the scene around her with a dazed incomprehension as the sounds began coalescing into words, phrases, shouts…

As Dawn looked around, flashes of what had happened began racing through her head, causing her to whimper in fear and sorrow. Blood… so much blood around her. Screams. She could remember the screams of the young Slayers as that man… no, he couldn't be a man; no man could rip a person to pieces with his bare hands. And then the sensation of flight as she was thrown free of the melee and the sickening pain of the force of impact as she slammed into the brick wall of the nearby building.

Dropping to her knees as everything threatened to overwhelm her again, Dawn became aware of motion next to her. Looking towards it, she realized that it was Andrew. He was sitting silently in an out of the way corner with his arms wrapped around his legs, rocking as he stared blankly at nothing. Shock… Andrew was in shock. Whatever had happened, it was bad enough that it had sent Andrew into an almost catatonic state.

Gripping her building panic by both reins firmly, Dawn pushed herself to her feet and examined her surroundings, trying desperately to get her bearings. She was in a room, possibly the living room of a house. The furniture was battered and well-used. Looking around, the shouts and yells still muffled to her befuddled mind, the thought that this wasn't a home, it was just a house crossed her mind. There were no pictures; no nick knacks. There was nothing to personalize the space… and for some reason, this was vitally important to her and she suspected that her mind was attempting to distract her from something. She suspected that she was suffering from shock as well and again took a deep breath to calm her racing heart.

Suddenly, without warning, all sound returned to full volume and she could make out the frantic shouts coming from the next room. Running to the doorway, she stood there and witnessed a sight she had hoped to never see again… it was almost too reminiscent of her days back on the Hellmouth.

The man, Derek… the one she had been trying to break out of the prisoner transport when that… thing… had appeared on the scene, lay on the kitchen table, covered in blood from a nasty gunshot wound. Another man worked frantically, obviously trying to save him, but Derek wouldn't calm down. He fought everyone; the man working on him, the younger boy and two women that she remembered from the convention center.

"Get that metal bitch away from me!" Derek shouted, panicked and agitated.

"Bullet nicked his left lung. I got a fragment lodged in the soft tissue, I can get it out, but will someone please tell me what the hell is going on around here?" the other man demanded, trying to work on Derek as he fought all four of them from his prone position on the table.

"She's a machine! She's a liar!" Derek shouted, growing weaker from the loss of blood.

Dawn couldn't help but feel a sense of sympathy for the man as she watched him fight for his life. How many times had this scene played out before her eyes during the countless battles that she had witnessed in her short life? She couldn't help but admire him.

The man working on him finally couldn't take it anymore and looked to the group. "We need to do something! – I can't give him any sedatives, it'll lower his blood pressure too much and I can't monitor it from here!"

The boy and the older woman looked at each other in trepidation as Derek's struggles increased in response to the younger girl's approach.

"She's a liar! Everything she says is a lie! Don't listen to her! Don't listen-- don't! Don't! Get that bitch away from me! No, no! Get that bitch away from me!" Derek fought mightily, his wounds forgotten.

The younger girl looked at Derek and then to the group, silently asking for instructions.

"Charley…" the older woman started.

"Sarah!" He looked at the younger woman. "Do you want him to die?" he demanded.

"If I wanted him dead…" the younger girl started.

"Cameron!" the woman now identified as Sarah shouted, effectively cutting off the statement before it could be voiced.

Seeing that nothing was going to be accomplished and more than likely the man was going to bleed to death if she didn't step in, Dawn cleared her throat and approached cautiously, stopping short when Sarah spun around, gun cocked and aimed directly at her head.

Holding her hands out in a show of non-aggression and surrender, Dawn quietly said, "I can help him. I can calm him down enough that your guy there can work on him."

Sarah looked her in suspicion. "What? Are you some kind of nurse?"

"Nnno…" Dawn stuttered out. "I… look, I just… I can help him, ok? Right now, he's going to bleed to death! – None of us want that! Please?!" she pleaded, "Please… just let me help him."

"Mom…" the boy standing behind Sarah said quietly. "Let her help. Please."

Sarah paused for a moment, debating. The boy shifted, impatient. "Mom! – we're running out of time!"

"Ok." Sarah nodded. "OK… but if anything happens to him…" she trailed off. Dawn nodded. She understood.

Walking over to Derek, she pulled a chair up to the end of the table where his head was and sat down, looking at Charley. "My name is Dawn… I'm going to do something, and you're not going to understand it. I don't know how long I can keep it up so you need to work fast, ok?"

Charley nodded in agreement despite his confusion.

Taking a deep breath, Dawn placed her hands on either side of Derek's head with a firm grip, focusing herself and tuning out everything around her so she could concentrate solely on the man within her hands… the warmth of his skin, the blood giving it a tacky texture, his scent… these elements combined and allowed her ability to slowly flow through her, exiting through her hands and into Derek. She entered his mind quietly, calmly… slowly. She soothed him, wrapping herself around his mind and as he quieted, his vitals slowed.

"Now, Charley…" she whispered hoarsely as she kept a tight rein on everything around her… "Hurry."

Charley nodded and resumed his task of saving the strange man on the table with the aide of the even stranger young woman.

* * *

Inside Derek's mind, Dawn worked to soothe the agitated man enough that Charley could do what needed to be done to save his life. She noticed that Derek had retreated to a place he felt the safest and peeked in, curious as to what a battle hardened man such as Derek would find comforting… and what she saw was nothing like she had expected given her earlier experience inside his mind.

* * *

"But I can't hit it!" the young boy declared emphatically. He glared at the offending baseball bat that he held and gave it a shake for good measure, letting it know that he considered it to be all the bat's fault.

Chuckling, the older boy smiled and shook his head. "Yes, you can. You're just going to calm down and listen to me. I'm going to slow-pitch it to you, all right? And when I say 'now!' you're going to swing!" he instructed, adjusting the glove on his hand and smiling at the boy.

"But Der-EK!" the boy whined, "I just can't do it!" His lower lip jutted out to the point where someone could have landed a jumbo jet on it and Dawn couldn't help the smile that came out. Whoever the kid was, he was damn adorable!

"Kyle…" Derek said with the sound of infinite patience, "You can do this. Just trust me. Has your older brother ever let you down?"

"Well… no…" Kyle trailed off.

"OK, then! Let's just give it a couple of tries and then we'll see how it goes, ok?" Derek smiled at his little brother.

Dawn smiled softly, watching the exchange and quietly left as Derek slowly pitched a ball to Kyle and then yelled out when to swing the bat. She would never have expected someone like the Derek she had met to find comfort of memories such as those…

However, as she explored further, trying to get a bead on the man beneath her hands, she found memories that she didn't understand fully, but could definitely relate to… Memories of torture, pain; fighting for survival. Memories of losing loved ones, anger at following orders he didn't necessarily understand and always, the overwhelming need to protect and guide his little brother; to teach him to grow to be a good man despite their desperate living conditions, someone worthy of respect and love… someone not like himself.

…and then feeling the all encompassing sorrow of losing that same brother.

She studied the memories of the war he had fought, frowning at the cold efficiency of machine-like enemies he had fought against. Some looked human, like the one that had killed her girls and others were chrome plated nightmares. Dawn could sense his terror when Kyle was taken by the enemy and watched with gut tightening fear as Derek himself was captured and taken to a house. She frowned as she watched the other captives being taken away one by one and then it was Derek's turn. But once he got into the basement, the memory was forcefully shut down; Dawn couldn't access what happened behind that door and no matter how much she pushed, it wouldn't budge. She didn't understand how or what had happened, but she knew enough that forcing the issue would cause more harm than good.

Dawn choked back the tears that threatened and steeled herself against feeling too much. Something told her that she'd find it way too easy to fall for this man, if he survived.

* * *

Eventually, Dawn became aware of Charley's movements and realized he was nearly finished so she slowly started releasing Derek from her grip, allowing him to drift off into his sleep unassisted. Standing up, a wave of dizziness washed over her and she stumbled into someone standing next to her. Apologizing, she realized it was the young boy that had insisted she help Derek. He stared at her with hooded eyes, secrets dancing all through his gaze.

"Thank you." He quietly stated.

"You're welcome."

Staring at her for a moment, he sighed. "My mom's wondering why you and your team were there for the transport." He looked back towards the living room where the sounds of voices could be heard in urgent conversation. "My name is John, my mother, the woman with the gun, is Sarah…" he glanced back at Dawn before staring down at Derek and sighing. "We need to know if you're a threat to us, Dawn."

Dawn nodded in understanding… he wanted to hear what she had to say before his mother got involved. "I had a friend… Andy. I… I couldn't run the risk of losing the only lead I had… But, I never expected anything like this… my girls…" she trailed off as the sorrow once again made itself known.

"I'm sorry." He said, sincerely. "They never stood a chance against him, you need to understand that."

Dawn looked at him, shaky as the adrenaline that had been keeping her going slowly started tapering off. "What was it? He wasn't human… I know that. And he wasn't…" she drifted off, tears beginning to form and her voice thickening from the effort of resisting an emotional breakdown. "He wasn't what my girls were used to, either." She took a deep breath; sniffling and John glanced away, respecting her grief. Siobhan and Ashanti had been brave warriors, they hadn't deserved the deaths that they had been delivered. They had gone down fighting, that much she knew. But she didn't even have a clue as to how to describe to the Council what had happened. She was at a loss, having never experienced anything like this before and turned to the only source of information she had; John. "I need to know… I need to know what we were up against."

The boy sighed and looked down at the floor, rubbing the back of his neck tiredly. "What would you say if I told you it was a robot? One that was sent back in time to kill me?"

Dawn narrowed her eyes, looking at him in thoughtful silence and then tilted her head slightly towards Derek, sleeping quietly on the table. "I'd think that I've heard stranger things… and seen them, too."

The boy looked at her in wide eyed surprise.

Dawn nodded, acknowledging his unspoken question. "Trust me, killer robots, while not my usual soup de jour, is not what it would take to surprise me… how's my friend? He didn't look too good when I woke up."

John frowned. "He's not usually in the thick of things, is he?"

Dawn shook her head. "No. He usually stays in the office… he's one of our computer guys. I'm not even sure why he was sent to us."

"He's still over in that corner… he hasn't moved since we brought him here. Cameron's been keeping an eye on him. She seems fascinated by him, which is really… disturbing." John muttered to himself.

Dawn watched the boy as he turned and headed into the other room. He stopped at the doorway and looked back over his shoulder at her. Taking a deep breath, he said quietly, "Thanks, again. He…" he looked away for a moment and then softly spoke over his shoulder to her, "he's very important to me… to us."

"You're welcome, John."

John nodded and walked off, heading toward the back of the house, where voices were once again raised and urgent. Dawn sighed and walked over to Derek, watching him for a moment while he slept. She gently laid a hand on his forehead; feeling the slightly feverish skin beneath it and frowned softly… he had been through so much. Gently stroking his face one last time, she turned and went in search of Andrew, knowing that the poor guy was probably going to need some Xanax and explanations…

She really needed to figure out what she could say to Giles when she called him that wouldn't result in Buffy jumping on the first plane to Los Angeles.

* * *

At first glance, Andrew may have appeared to be in a catatonic state. The reality was that he was attempting to process what he had just witnessed in Technicolor 3-D. It was obvious it was real; the Slayers were dead. But it was like something out of a science fiction movie and that was what he was trying to get his head around… it wasn't something he'd made up like when he was a kid. This was real life and he had witnessed something he had never thought would go further than the Buffybot and Sunnydale.

Knowing the answers lay in details, Andrew started methodically, brutally, going through his memories of what happened. Starting with the call that morning from Giles, he raked through it all… He smiled sadly at the memory of Siobhan and Ashanti arguing over who was going to drive. He'd miss them greatly; they had always been kind to him and had made an effort to include him when others shunned him.

Flashback

Dawn stormed out of the room, impatience practically radiating off of her and Siobahn glanced at him, the silent question reflected in her quirked eyebrow. He shrugged. "Let's get a move on, ladies! I'll drive, since you two are going to be needed for the strength and skill part of this little rendezvous!"

He could tell that they wanted to argue the point with him, but they also saw the validity of his point and finally just snapped to work and started gearing up, preparing for the extraction. He wandered off in search of Dawn, leaving the two Slayers talking quietly with each other for the moment.

Reaching the extraction location, he would have never been prepared for what greeted them. There was already an attempted break-out being performed, but a large man in an orange prison jumpsuit was interfering. The Slayers leapt into the fray, weapons and fists flying with what should have been brutal efficiency…

…they were anything but.

Andrew screamed when the first Slayer, Siobhan, went down with a sickening show of blood and the distinct sounds of bones snapping and breaking under the large man's hands. Dawn rushed over to try and drag the Slayer out of the line of fire, ducking and dodging the battle between Ashanti, who had gone into an almost berserker-like rage, a small dark-haired woman who was throwing punches and kicks with as much effectiveness as the man they were fighting, and the strange man that was intent on killing them all. Just as Dawn reached Siobhan, the man in the prison uniform reached out and grabbed Dawn by the arms and threw her into the brick building on the other side of the lot.

Andrew was torn between assisting the remaining Slayer and rushing to check Dawn. Just as he was about to race over to Dawn, figuring Ashanti could handle herself, the man reached a fever-pitch battle with the Slayer and what Andrew witnessed he knew would stay with him forever.

He had seen Slayers go down in battle. In the final battle for Sunnydale, he had witnessed firsthand how nastily Slayers could be taken down. They didn't die well and didn't go quietly. Slayers caught in the grip of a killing rage went with the intention of taking everything around them down, too.

Andrew had never witnessed a Slayer ripped to pieces; heard one beg for mercy, plead for the lives of others while continuing to fight. Hearing Ashanti cry out, Andrew fell to his knees, the tears streaming down his face as he watched, knowing that the Slayer deserved to have this recorded, to have someone witness the sacrifice she made so that others could continue on. Andrew watched as the other woman, while the man was occupied with Ashanti, was able to finally overtake him and wrap him in rebar, effectively containing the threat… but moments too late to save Ashanti.

Andrew fell back, scrambling away toward Dawn, anxious to protect the unconscious woman as the dark-haired woman strode purposefully towards him. As he reached Dawn, covering her form with his body, the woman stopped and stared at him. She studied him for a moment, head tilted as if processing something. Just as he was getting ready to demand an answer as to what was going on, another woman screamed the girl's name and that was when Andrew noticed that the man they had come here for was on the ground, bleeding.

The girl looked back him. "Come with me."

"Who are you?!" Andrew demanded, not willing to place Dawn in any more danger.

"Come with me." She said again and walked off, grabbing the bleeding man as if he weighed nothing and placing him into the waiting Jeep. The boy with them raced over and grabbed one of Dawn's arms and looked at Andrew.

"What are you doing?! Get your hands off of her!" Andrew yelled.

"Look, she said you two needed to come with us… so you're coming. Let's go!" the boy stated.

Andrew hesitated for a split moment and then, realizing he had no other options, grabbed Dawn from him, swinging her up into his arms and stumbled toward the Jeep, pausing briefly when he saw the girl staring at him again.

End Flashback

Looking back on the entire episode, Andrew felt an incredible wave of grief wash over him and he felt the tears start running down his face as he broke down, sobbing quietly over the loss of the two Slayers and feeling a great sense of relief for Dawn and himself making it out with their lives.

"Andrew?" he heard his name as if from a great distance. Shaking himself, he forced the tears back and focused on the sound and saw Dawn crouched near him, weariness radiating off of her frame.

"Yeah?" he said hollowly.

Dawn sighed. "You ok?"

"No, not really… but I think we have another problem." He had finally isolated what had been bothering him about the whole encounter.

"What's that?" she asked tiredly.

"That girl…? The one with the dark hair?"

"yeah…?"

"I think she knows me, Dawn."


End file.
